Belugas!

Concept Document

Im nearly done with the first draft, just need to draw up the Beluga in different positions like it's swimming around. It's being done in Photoshop so i'll make it into a PDF to view it easier once it's done, here's a few example pages from the document so far:

Arctic Char

Another background fish featured in the game. It will not impact the Beluga at all.

Jellyfish...

These will be in featured allot. in large 'packs'. 

Bowhead Whale

A big feature in Arctic waters. He is friendly.

Narwhal!

Ok so he's making an appearance but only as a background character.

Snailfish...

This guy is just a background fishy.

Big Bad Orca

This guy will chase the little Beluga in one of my levels!

My Rocks!

My Coral, i'll add articles on climate change in the background of the game-

The Game Title

So i've decided on The Beluga Whale Tale.

My Final Main Character Style Of The Beluga Whale

Beluga Whale Main Character Ideas

The Beluga Whale

I thought reading up on the whale would help me come up with narrative, mechanics and characters in the game, here is what I found that I thought might be relevant:
It is a opportunistic feeder, it eats fish, crustaceans and invertebrates.
They move in groups. (i'll have to forget this when I make the game, I want it to be solo)
It has adapted to the arctic sea by being all white, full of blubber and no dorsal fin.
They have a highly developed sense of hearing and they have echolocation to find blowholes.
They are hunted by Eskimos for food.
They are also hunted by Polar Bears and Killer Whales.

This all might help me to think about settings, enemies and mechanics.

unknown,25/08/2011,Goofy Beluga Whale,http://www.acuteaday.com/blog/category/beluga-whales/

The Story!

Ok, so now I've decided on what animal to use as the main character, this helped me determine a narrative. I always knew I wanted it to be simple, and after reading about Beluga Whales I found that they are migratory animals. They live in the arctic in winter and as the ice melts in summer they move to warmer shores and rivers. So this will be the basis of my story, the Beluga trying to leave the arctic water to migrate.

Art Style

As I've decided on the art style, the paper, mix media look. These are a few games i'll look into for inspiration.

unknown,http://www.varoom-mag.com/?p=1215

This is the game Lume. It was made entirely by hand with paper craft. Then turned into a video game.

unknown,http://amanita-design.net/games/machinarium.html

This is Machinarium, I love its paper, pencil and water colour style.

Beluga Whales!

After deciding a Beluga Whale was going to be my main character I then looked at a few different art styles I may wan to use. After thinking about the settings of the game too, I knew I didn't want it to be simple or cartoon like. I love the mix media, paper texture style one at the top, but for an underwater world where I'm trying to portray climate change maybe the whale shown above would be best.

Though looking deeper into it, for the climate change parts, say when the ice falls into the water and the player has to dodge it, they could have paper textures on them from climate change articles. The coral could have the appropriate colours and still look the same but have floral textures on. I was going to have the style of the beluga at the bottom of the above picture but I think this idea could really make my game stand out.

Enemies or bad parts of environment could have images of chimneys and exhausts on them? Just an idea. I think it should be relevant where I can though. One guy that really inspired me to look at this style is Oliver Jeffers, a children's book writer/illustrator.

Elina Ellis,11/02/2011,Oliver Jeffers,http://elinaellis.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/oliver-jeffers.html

This is from the book 'The Incredible Book Eating Boy'. All his books are done this way and I just love it.

So this exercise was suppose to help me choose a style and make it easier for me but all its done is make it harder.

Game Specifics

Third Person
PSN
Main Character- Beluga Whale (It won't have a name)
Narrative-Undecided

Beluga Whale

Beluga Whales are so cute so this is a strong contender! Once again, once I've decided on a main character, i'll paint it in a few different styles to decide the look of the game.

Art Styles

I have one more possible main character to do but I was thinking, once I've chosen one ill try it out in various art styles and thats when I'll choose how my game will look from this.
I love this and this kind of style is one ill definitely look into.

http://www.deviantart.com/#/d5gui8q

Narwhal

I think narwhals are lovely whimsical creatures and its the creature I've always been leaning towards the most.

Harp Seal

This is a quick digital paint of a Harp Seal. Seals need to come up for air so this would change my game a bit, but they eat fish so if I went for the back story of the main character looking for food due to the lack of it because of over fishing a Seal would be good.

Stinging Nettle Jellyfish

Im not sure i'll go for a jelly fish as I rather like the idea of them being present frequently in the background.

Main Character thoughts.

After sleeping on it, I've decided I don't want to use a crustacean as its just not a nice main character, so ill be creating my favourite main character ideas to help me decide which to use. Excluding the Bowhead whale as I've already decided its too large.

If the main character was a fish:

I think i'll choose an creature that lives underwater as that is where all the levels lie, so no Polar Bears, Penguins or Arctic Foxes etc.
These are my final choices:
The Narwhal:

unknown,http://savethenarwhals.org

The Beluga Whale:

unknown,www.fish-journal.com

The Bowhead Whale:

unknown,http://oceana.org

The Harp Seal:

Fritz,9/3/2012,What Do They Know That We Don't,http://fritz-aviewfromthebeach.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/what-do-they-know-that-we-dont.html

The Sea Nettle:

unknown,scientists discover stinging truths about jellyfish blooms in the bering sea,http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=111598&org=NSF

Looking at these I think a small animal would work better for my levels, a Bowhead Whale would simply be too big to be a main character in an exploratory game.

If the main character was an Arctic crustacean...

 Euphausiids or Krill:

Unknown,en.wikipedia.org

Antarctic copepods:

Unknown,www.koratdiveclub.com

Harpacticoids:

unknown,www.sciencephoto.com

Cyclopoids:

unknown,www.sfrc.ufl.edu

Looking at these, if I was to go with the idea of a crustacean floating through the different environments, observing the climate change effects, I think i'd go with any of them except the Cyclopoids. As they just aren't visually very nice!

I thought this was interesting.

Unknown,Failblog.org

Notes from today.

Story Ideas:

Search for more food, find out where it’s all gone.

Find the source of an oil spill.

Finding a new home after yours has been ruined by the effects of climate change.

Need to find a reason you’re traveling, a reason for going through the levels.

Keep it simple with the game play focus being exploration.

Level Ideas:

Dodge dropping bits of ice.

Out swim enemies.

Get through poisonous coral without touching it.

Miss the patches of spilt oil.

Use the ice finger somewhere.

 Getting food is a large part of the story as over fishing has depleted food.

Settings:

Coral

Ice caves

Dead whales

Characters:

Decide on a list of enemies.

Sharks, octopus, squid, crab, deep sea fish.

DECIDE WHAT THE MAIN CHARACTER IS!

Narwhal?

Penguin?

Any allies? Good characters.

An animal people generally tend to like.

A crustacean, or even smaller, just ‘observing’ the changes around it, going through the settings.

Research what this small thing could be.

Realistic? Any fantasy elements? Artistic license with the colours etc.

Ill now begin designing the main character.

Concept, characters and settings, any props, interactivity, menus, how will the player interact with the game? PSN?

Remember to stick to a pastel colour palette and muted colours.